Walt Bartman

About the Artist

walterbartman.com Founder, Director at The Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery and Co-founder at The Griffin Art Center. yellowbarnstudio.com Walter Bartman, Director and Founder of the Yellow Barn, has taught art in the Bethesda, Maryland area for over thirty years. Specializing in landscape and figure painting, he is known as one of Maryland's finest painting teachers. He is listed in the Art and Artist Files in the Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden Library Collections.    With work in prominent public and private collections, Bartman has and continues to receive national recognition for his remarkable artwork and teaching. In 1998, he was featured on CBS's Charles Osgood Show, "Sunday Morning." He was personally recognized by President George W. Bush and President Clinton.   

Artist's Statement

Like Turner and Rothko, an artist should be a visionary… I know what compels me to paint is color. In painting, my mind is captivated to express what I see, and what I see is what I realize my mind lets me see. My paintings reflect my interest in communicating with the viewer what I am experiencing at that moment. “It is the invisible that needs to be found, the clue is in the visible.” Though my search is for an abstract understanding, my own synthesis of experience is conveyed in the properties of my paint. For the me, it is in the construction of the idea and its many stages. It is this process that takes precedence in my work. My work communicates my journey. My most successful work demonstrates my sensitivity to the moment, and the freshness of thought captured by my brush. It is the poetry in the paint. My work is an assemblage of visual experiences and subjects over a period of time. Everything is in change. Each work has a distinct response and is a unique personal interpretation. As a life’s work, my paintings are about my search to express my response to the subject and situation. Many of the paintings are from life, though the some of the work is completed in the studio.